macOS High Sierra (10.13) Unsupported Macs Thread

[RogueB]

High Sierra Beta 8 developer edition just came out. It does not show up as regular update yet, but when logged into developer account, under downloads, it is listed as available.

Will try to use dosdude1's new patcher, if I can download stand alone installer rather than be directed to auto install section. I am registered developer, but have to jump through hoops to get the full installer.

 

[TMRJIJ]

I wouldn't be calling up Apple about hacked installations of macOS on unsupported hardware. IMHO, we are rather lucky that Steve Jobs isn't still around because I am sure he would have shut down that activity in a heart beat. However I am interested to know if anyone else has had their iCloud access disabled from using an APFS/helper partition combination to login beside foxlet. I really find it hard to believe that Apple would have implemented anything like that as it could so easily be turned back against them by hackers to disable known AppleIDs on a mass scale.

We had a similar issues back in OS X Mountain Lion with MacPostFactor. Some Senior Engineers are able to help out and generally don’t care about what went down on our unsupported hardware.

 

[RogueB]

We had a similar issues back in OS X Mountain Lion with MacPostFactor. Some Senior Engineers are able to help out and generally don’t care about what went down on our unsupported hardware.

Agreed regarding contact with Apple; even when Steve Jobs was still alive, it was not a big problem. I still have a Umax S900 clone running OS X, thanks to xPostFacto utility. That utility essentially allowed OS X installation, on Power PC, in manner very similar to dosdued1's patcher.

 

[jhowarth]

We had a similar issues back in OS X Mountain Lion with MacPostFactor. Some Senior Engineers are able to help out and generally don’t care about what went down on our unsupported hardware.

Don't get me wrong. I entirely support the idea of extending the support of newer OS releases onto older hardware where possible. In fact, I sent a series of emails to Tim Cook and a senior programmer at Apple earlier this year making the argument that Apple's premature termination of OS support for older hardware was creating a national security cyber threat to the country and that Microsoft had oddly become the white hat these days since they supported far older hardware.

 

[roziek]

I have no problem with calling Apple support. In fact, they helped me many many times with iCloud/iM/FaceTime issues while I was building Hackintosh for people. Apple log and store various ID's from your OS X device's such as MLB, ROM and Hardware UUID each time you attempt to log into/authenticate with iMessage's servers. These ID's must be valid and are verified against black lists. As long as they are, you are OK. The most important thing is to make sure that your S/N is valid and unregistered(for hackintosh) and thats where Clover comes with its "Magic Wand" option.

And they had no problem with it? Did you make it clear you were build a hackintosh? And not only building, but (I assume) selling it to people?

This is in violation with their EULA and seems hard to believe they would not have a problem with that. Actually, you're in violation of the EULA even when you're building a hackintosh for yourself, let alone for someone else and receiving compensation for it.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for hackintoshes and extending the life of our no longer supported (but fully capable) Macs. I just find it very hard to believe they didn't care (assuming they knew).

 

[RogueB]

And they had no problem with it? Did you make it clear you were build a hackintosh? And not only building, but (I assume) selling it to people?

This is in violation with their EULA and seems hard to believe they would not have a problem with that. Actually, you're in violation of the EULA even when you're building a hackintosh for yourself, let alone for someone else and receiving compensation for it.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for hackintoshes and extending the life of our no longer supported (but fully capable) Macs. I just find it very hard to believe they didn't care (assuming they knew).

You correct about Hackintoshes, but installing OS X on unsupported Macs, was not an issue for Apple even in xPostFacto days.

By the way, I noted that you reaffirmed that installing OS X updates over old system, which could login into iServices, allowed continued use of iCloud, iMessage and Face Time. Caveat here is not to logout form iCloud, which admittedly, and luckily, I did not do.

 

[roziek]

By the way, I noted that you reaffirmed that installing OS X updates over old system, which could login into iServices, allowed continued use of iCloud, iMessage and Face Time. Caveat here is not to logout form iCloud, which admittedly, and luckily, I did not do.

Yeah, if you sign out, you can’t sign in again.

 

[Brale]

@jaymonkey

And they had no problem with it? Did you make it clear you were build a hackintosh? And not only building, but (I assume) selling it to people?

This is in violation with their EULA and seems hard to believe they would not have a problem with that. Actually, you're in violation of the EULA even when you're building a hackintosh for yourself, let alone for someone else and receiving compensation for it.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for hackintoshes and extending the life of our no longer supported (but fully capable) Macs. I just find it very hard to believe they didn't care (assuming they knew).

No bud, They didn't know it was hackintosh. The can't tell if its hackintosh or the real mac. They didn't ask anything but S/N and what OS X i have installed. I wasn't selling it. I built it for my friends and co-workers. They needed more powerful "Mac's" because photoshop rendering and video editing on old Mac's with slow processors and low RAM can take hours and hours (up to 6-8hrs).

 

[lostmyshoe123]

Just finished adding my new APFS boot implementation to macOS High Sierra Patcher! This method does not require a helper partition, and allows iMessage/FaceTime/etc. to work as they should. One current limitation is that it doesn't support booting from multiple APFS volumes on a single drive, however that will be fixed relatively soon. For now, though, give it a test and let me know how it works! Download available on my webpage, as usual. For those of you using the old implementation, just re-create your USB drive with the tool, boot from it, use Disk Utility to remove your helper partition, and then open the post-install tool and apply the APFS patch.

[doublepost=1503950532][/doublepost]Working for me on iMac 7.1, thanks

 

[tarasis]

First @dosdude1 Thank you for the patcher. Worked a treat on my MBP 5,5.

Quick question, I accidentally triggered softwareupdate --clear-catalog in the terminal. Will that cause a problem to pick up beta updates?

Wondering whether to try converting the HFS install to AFPS.

 

[dosdude1]

First @dosdude1 Thank you for the patcher. Worked a treat on my MBP 5,5.

Quick question, I accidentally triggered softwareupdate --clear-catalog in the terminal. Will that cause a problem to pick up beta updates?

Wondering whether to try converting the HFS install to AFPS.

Yeah, all you have to do is run the macOS Public Beta Access Utility, which will set your catalog URL back, and allow you to retrieve updates. You can convert your install to APFS if you want, just do it while booted off the installer USB drive. Once you do convert it, all you need to do is run the post-install tool to apply the APFS patch.

 

[tarasis]

Yeah, all you have to do is run the macOS Public Beta Access Utility, which will set your catalog URL back, and allow you to retrieve updates.

Cheers, that worked perfectly. (Dumped the stats and checked log in /var/log/install.log and its looking at https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz )

You can convert your install to APFS if you want, just do it while booted off the installer USB drive. Once you do convert it, all you need to do is run the post-install tool to apply the APFS patch.

That easy? Okay, I will give that a go then.

Thank you again.

 

[nekton1]

Have not been able to get it to work so far. I started making a clean USB installer with today's update (beta 8) and it could boot the MP 3,1. The install proceeded OK to a newly formatted APFS SSD. The post-install was a bit flakey and I had to try two or times and after that the newly installed SSD does not show at all in the efi.boot screen although I can see it in diskutil and on the desktop when booted from an HS (beta 7 install) on a separate SSD. Screen shots enclosed.
[doublepost=1503954815][/doublepost]I am just trying a second install. After pulling all the SSDs in the MP and removing the target SSD for this trial from a Sonnet PCIe card to install in a regular slot, when I rebooted from the USB installer and ran DU on the target SSD, it said the SSD disk was corrupt! Previously this SSD appeared to the system as an external SSD because it was on the PCIe card and I formatted it to APFS using DU. A previous poster noted an APFS format failure when formatting externals, so I wonder if this caused the corruption. I partitioned it back to HFS+ using DU from the USB installer, and it showed up clean and then repartitioned it again as APFS where it again showed clean. I am just now completing a fresh install on to it. It just completed the install and now rebooting from the USB for the post-install. Clicking Patch. Applying Patch. Complete. Reboot. Rebuilding caches. And.....OH — a verbose log/command shell. Progressed to gray Apple. Very slow gray progress bar during last 1 cm. Back to white Apple on black screen. Gray screen with cursor for 15 seconds and Welcome setup screen.
[doublepost=1503955363][/doublepost]

Have not been able to get it to work so far. I started making a clean USB installer with today's update (beta 8) and it could boot the MP 3,1. The install proceeded OK to a newly formatted APFS SSD. The post-install was a bit flakey and I had to try two or times and after that the newly installed SSD does not show at all in the efi.boot screen although I can see it in diskutil and on the desktop when booted from an HS (beta 7 install) on a separate SSD. Screen shots enclosed.
[doublepost=1503954815][/doublepost]I am just trying a second install. After pulling all the SSDs in the MP and removing the target SSD for this trial from a Sonnet PCIe card to install in a regular slot, when I rebooted from the USB installer and ran DU on the target SSD, it said the SSD disk was corrupt! Previously this SSD appeared to the system as an external SSD because it was on the PCIe card and I formatted it to APFS using DU. A previous poster noted an APFS format failure when formatting externals, so I wonder if this caused the corruption. I partitioned it back to HFS+ using DU from the USB installer, and it showed up clean and then repartitioned it again as APFS where it again showed clean. I am just now completing a fresh install on to it. It just completed the install and now rebooting from the USB for the post-install. Clicking Patch. Applying Patch. Complete. Reboot. Rebuilding caches. And.....OH — a verbose log/command shell. Progressed to gray Apple. Very slow gray progress bar during last 1 cm. Back to white Apple on black screen. Gray screen with cursor for 15 seconds and Welcome setup screen.

Logging in to iCloud. Setting up account......slow but succeeded.....Setting up your Mac .....Night shift patch....Messages working....Facetime working

Congratulations dosdude 1 (and foxlet and Czo and everyone who made this possible)

 

[tarasis]

Argh. Something seems to be crashing lots. CPU pegged to 100% with ReportCrash taking up the bulk of it (or two of them). (not done switch to AFPS yet).

I am seeing a lot of the following messages in system.log

Aug 28 23:27:38 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent[5453]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:38 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.universalaccessd[5424]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent[5464]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.
​

and crash logs for

NotificationCenter_2017-08-28-233326_MacBook-Pro.crash
universalaccessd_2017-08-28-233004_MacBook-Pro.crash
​

Notification Center won't open when clicking on it on the menu bar.

 

[nekton1]

Will look in Console now and see what is happening on this install.

Argh. Something seems to be crashing lots. CPU pegged to 100% with ReportCrash taking up the bulk of it (or two of them). (not done switch to AFPS yet).

I am seeing a lot of the following messages in system.log

Aug 28 23:27:38 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent[5453]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:38 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.universalaccessd[5424]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent[5464]): Binary is improperly signed.
Aug 28 23:27:39 MacBook-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.notificationcenterui.agent): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.
​

and crash logs for

NotificationCenter_2017-08-28-233326_MacBook-Pro.crash
universalaccessd_2017-08-28-233004_MacBook-Pro.crash
​

Notification Center won't open when clicking on it on the menu bar.

[doublepost=1503959860][/doublepost]dosdude 1

I've run into a glitch. The refind (?) shell loses track of the boot disk if I put it back onto the PCIe card or indeed move the slot it is in.

[doublepost=1503960303][/doublepost]

Will look in Console now and see what is happening on this install.


[doublepost=1503959860][/doublepost]dosdude 1

I've run into a glitch. The refind (?) shell loses track of the boot disk if I put it back onto the PCIe card or indeed move the slot it is in.

Addendum; it seems it does NOT like having more than one boot disk in the system. If I pull the Sierra and HS on HFS+ boot disks from the system, the refind (?) shell does find the HS beta 8 on APFS and boots fine.
This is a slight PITA but I guess it can be worked around in the shell as it loads.

NOTE: this is not a case of multiple boot partitions; this is a case of having multiple boot SSDs (Sierra on HFS+, HS (beta 7 on HFS+) and HS (beta 8 on AFPS).

NOTE2: But the principle works—thanks.

 

[Brale]

Typing from my MB 5,2
HDD single partition, APSF, Beta 7



@nekton1 I see a huge difference in size. Check my picture. APFS Volume VM 4.3GB

[doublepost=1503962477][/doublepost]I have 2 issues. I can't use volume buttons on my keyboard. They don't work. Have to change the volume from sysPrefs or menubar. So annoying. I couldn't fine anywhere option to turn on/off FN keys anywhere. Weird.
And trackpad 2-finger scroll doesn't work anymore. Can someone confirm this or I'm the only one?

 

[Luigi222]

Didn’t work for me on my Macbook pro 5,2.

Made a new installer with more recent tool, formatted my ssd completly new with apfs, aplied do post install patch and it doesn’t boot or find the anything else but the os intaller...

 

[gotcoding24]

Hi,

I just wanted to say that the Patcher feels a lot snappier and faster overall. Also, I don't believe that it isn't downloading the latest beta (DB 8, PB 7) via Tools top menu. I also have been noticing that the same machine is having bugs (Mac Pro 3,1, OMP's, MB and MBP 5,2), these bugs are mostly occuring on these machines, is there a reason for this?

 

[roziek]

Just finished adding my new APFS boot implementation to macOS High Sierra Patcher! This method does not require a helper partition, and allows iMessage/FaceTime/etc. to work as they should. One current limitation is that it doesn't support booting from multiple APFS volumes on a single drive, however that will be fixed relatively soon. For now, though, give it a test and let me know how it works! Download available on my webpage, as usual. For those of you using the old implementation, just re-create your USB drive with the tool, boot from it, use Disk Utility to remove your helper partition, and then open the post-install tool and apply the APFS patch.

Unfortunately, doesn't work for me (Mac Pro 3,1).

First, I tried reapplying the patch from USB installer created using v2.1.3 (after deleting the helper boot partition). No luck. Then I did a fresh APFS High Sierra install and applied the patches - nothing still.

I can see that it put what's needed into my ESP, but it doesn't work regardless. It just boots into my Sierra (after a moment, when it's done looking for APFS bootable partitions). If I hold the option while powering on, nothing new appears on the selection screen, not even EFI Boot. Also, nothing in the Startup Disk pref pane while booted into Sierra.

@nekton1 You could avoid a whole lot of trouble and scratching your head why this or that doesn't work if you put your disks into one of the four standard bays. I know it's only SATA II speeds, but I've seen too many problems related to disks not being in those bays (especially on unsupported Macs), like either PCIe SSDs or in PCIe adapters, or connected directly to those two free SATA ports on the motherboard (and, popularly, placed in the DVD "chamber"). I would at least advise to put the disks in the standard bays for the time being, while we're in beta and testing tools to bring High Sierra to our unsupported Macs.

 

[nekton1]

roziek,

Yes, I have come to the same conclusion and pulled the PCIe card with other boot SSDs in it. At the moment, I'm running with just HS beta 8 in one of the standard Sata II bays (of MP3,1) and no other boot disks attached. It seems to be working fine and I just used Migration Assistant to pull my Home folder from a recent external TM backup on USB3,1 disk and that seems to have completed OK—Office had to be reactivated but went smoothly. iCloud mail, Messages and FaceTime are all ok.
[doublepost=1503967478][/doublepost]

Didn’t work for me on my Macbook pro 5,2.

Made a new installer with more recent tool, formatted my ssd completly new with apfs, aplied do post install patch and it doesn’t boot or find the anything else but the os intaller...

[doublepost=1503967578][/doublepost]Check the integrity of the APFS destination disk—mine was corrupted on the first install—by running DU (First Aid) from the USB installer. Remove all other boot disks while doing this install too.

 

[jhowarth]

No joy here. After creating a new USB installer with the High Sierra Patch 2.1.3 using today's Beta 8 HS release and removing there HFS help partition on the volume with the working APFS partition, I find that the application of the patches on the APFS volume doesn't result in a boot selector entry for the APFS partition.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk4 249.8 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_RAID 499.8 GB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_RAID 499.8 GB disk2s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk2s3

/dev/disk3 (internal, virtual):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +499.8 GB disk3

/dev/disk4 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +249.8 GB disk4
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume High Sierra APFS HD 56.9 GB disk4s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 17.5 MB disk4s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.0 MB disk4s3
4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk4s4

The application of the APBS patch at the end of the patching sequence seems really fast so I'm unclear if it is really being executed.

I also tried running 'Disk FirstAid' on the upgraded APFS partition from the USB installer and no issues were found. Reapplying the patches to the APFS volume several times never changed the absence of an entry in the boot selector.

 

[dosdude1]

No joy here. After creating a new USB installer with the High Sierra Patch 2.1.3 using today's Beta 8 HS release and removing there HFS help partition on the volume with the working APFS partition, I find that the application of the patches on the APFS volume doesn't result in a boot selector entry for the APFS partition.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *250.1 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk4 249.8 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk1
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1
2: Apple_RAID 499.8 GB disk1s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_RAID 499.8 GB disk2s2
3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk2s3

/dev/disk3 (internal, virtual):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD +499.8 GB disk3

/dev/disk4 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +249.8 GB disk4
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume High Sierra APFS HD 56.9 GB disk4s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 17.5 MB disk4s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 517.0 MB disk4s3
4: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk4s4

The application of the APBS patch at the end of the patching sequence seems really fast so I'm unclear if it is really being executed.

I also tried running 'Disk FirstAid' on the upgraded APFS partition from the USB installer and no issues were found. Reapplying the patches to the APFS volume several times never changed the absence of an entry in the boot selector.

Ah, based on that output I see an issue already with the patching method... Will update and re-upload momentarily.

 

[jhowarth]

Ah, based on that output I see an issue already with the patching method... Will update and re-upload momentarily.

FYI, I also tried pulling all the physical SATA drives out of my MacPro 3,1 except for the one with the APFS partition and it yielded the same result, no boot selector entry, after patching again.

 

[dosdude1]

FYI, I also tried pulling all the physical SATA drives out of my MacPro 3,1 except for the one with the APFS partition and it yielded the same result, no boot selector entry, after patching again.

Alright, just updated. For quicker testing, you can just copy macOS Post Install from the Contents/Resources folder in the High Sierra Patcher app to /Applications/Utilities on your USB drive.

 

[foxlet]

This used to hold a letter.